Chess records reveal a rich and interesting history.
They allow us to analyze and enjoy the greatest games ever played. Without video recordings, we can still experience the drama and intelligence of early chess tournaments as if we were there. However, to the uninitiated, chess records may look like an unintelligible jumble of numbers, letters, and tables.
Fortunately, they are not as complex as they seem. You can learn how to read and track tournaments and matches by understanding the basics of chess notation, scoring, tournament structures, and ratings.
Chess Records: Games
Chess records allow us to recreate and analyze past games and matches. To understand them there are a few things you should learn the basics of chess notation and scorekeeping.
From early chess tournaments to the present, players have recorded their moves using various notation systems. These records have made their way into archives and books, allowing us to review the extraordinary history of chess and see the unique styles of some of the game’s most extraordinary figures.
Chess notation has developed, with many different ways of recording the moves, but today algebraic notation is standard.
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Algebraic Notation
Every one of the 64 squares on a chess board is marked by a coordinate. We identify horizontal “ranks” using numbers and vertical “files” using letters. The major pieces are referred to using letters: K (King), Q (Queen), B (Bishop), R (Rook/Castle), and N (Knight).
The style has changed over the years, but today the most common is a streamlined form of algebraic notation. Here are the opening moves of Petrov’s Defense in algebraic notation:
- e4 e5
- Nf3 Nf6
Players use additional shorthand to specify different kinds of moves: We use an "x" to indicate that one piece is taking another; for example, Nxe5 (Knight takes the pawn on e5). For moves with check, we use a "+" symbol and a "#" for checkmate. For castling, we use O–O (short/kingside castle) and O-O-O (long/queenside castle).
Score Sheets
During games, chess players are responsible for annotating their games. Using score sheets, they record the moves of both black and white. These score sheets allow players, chess enthusiasts, and historians to keep a detailed record of games.
As you can see below, tournament score sheets contain cells for each move as well as information about the tournament, the board number, the opening, the pairing number, and the signature of each player.
Chess Records Example: Historic Game
Let’s take a look at the complete notation of a game between Bobby Fischer and Mikhail Tal played in 1960 during the Chess Olympiad in Leipzig.
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Ba5 6.b4 cxd4 7.Qg4 Ne7 8.bxa5 dxc3 9.Qxg7 Rg8 10.Qxh7 Nbc6 11.Nf3 Qc7 12.Bb5 Bd7 13. O-O O-O-O 14.Bg5 Nxe5 15.Nxe5 Bxb5 16.Nxf7 Bxf1 17.Nxd8 Rxg5 18.Nxe6 Rxg2+ 19.Kh1 Qe5 20.Rxf1 Qxe6 21.Kxg2 Qg4+
Draw: ½ - ½
Now, that is a scary-looking block of notation, but it’s simpler than you might imagine. You can recreate the game easily by “playing” the moves one at a time using an online chess analysis board or a physical board.
That said, what can we easily tell about the game just by looking at the notation?
- The game ended in a draw after 21 moves.
- There were a lot of exchanges (see how many times we see the “x” symbol used).
- The players castled on opposite sides of the board (long vs short castling)
- Toward the end of the game, several checks were delivered
To sum up, just by looking at this notation, we can see that this was a quick and aggressive game that ended in an approximately equal position. As you become more familiar with the shorthand, you will be able to understand a lot about games from only their records.
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Chess Records: Tournaments
International chess tournaments began in the 19th Century and gradually became more prestigious and competitive. As fans of chess history will know, the drama of geopolitics was often played out over the chess board.
Related reading: The Match of All Time by Gudmundur Thorarinsson
Understanding tournament records can enable you to study chess history and enjoy current competitions, where some of the greatest players of all time are still fighting it out.
Chess Results: Scoring
During tournaments, the results of games and matches are recorded using a standard scoring system:
1 point for a win, 0.5 for a draw, and 0 for a loss. Through various rounds, organizers rank players according to their points. Won matches are recorded as 1 - 0 for white and 0 - 1 for black, while draws are recorded like this ½-½.
Chess Tournament Structures
Today, there are many different types of tournaments. Here are some of the most common:
- In Round Robin tournaments, every player plays every other player twice, once with white and once with black.
- Swiss System tournaments pair players together based on their rating and rank them based on their points. The top-rated players are matched against the bottom-rated players. There are various rounds and it is unlikely you will play every other player in the tournament.
- Elimination or knockout tournaments follow the familiar structure in which the winner of a match advances and the loser is eliminated.
Tournament Tables
Chess tournaments present their results in a variety of ways.
One example is the cross table. They are often used in Swiss Tournaments because they can show multiple games between players. The players’ names are listed in the rows and columns so that you can easily see how each player performed against all the others. If, for example, you are hoping to see the result of Fabiano Caruana and Gukesh Dommaraju, you’ll be able to find the game in the cross table.
Other standings tables usually use a simple list format in which relevant information about the players and their games is recorded. This often includes the following:
- Player or Team (Ply)
- Seed Number (SNo)
- Title (GM, etc)
- Board (Bo)
- Number of Games Played
- Country or Chess Federation
- Wins
- Losses
- Draws
- Total points
- Tiebreaks
Tables like these are accessible on the tournament websites and other chess news publications. Following them can keep you up to date on the place of players or teams in the tournament.
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Chess Records: Ratings
In tournaments, chess ratings are used to match players to ensure competitive matches. The Elo rating system is the most common, named after Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physicist. It works by assigning points for winning, drawing, or losing based on the difference in ratings between the two players. This means if you beat a much higher-rated player, your rating will increase more than if you played someone at your level.
Chess websites like chess.com have a rating system in place for online games. Chess organizations like the International Chess Federation (FIDE), the US Chess Federation (USCF), and the English Chess Federation (ECF) also provide ratings.
Example: Tournament Record
Here is a section of the standings table from the 2023 Open Rapid Championship:
This table shows the rankings and match-ups in the ninth round of the tournament. Let’s take the first row:
- We can see that Magnus Carlsen played Vincent Keymer
- Carlsen is the first seed and Keymer is the 36th
- Their ratings are 2818 (Carlsen) and 2631 (Keymer)
- They are playing on Board 1 (Bo.)
- Carlsen has 6.5 points and Keymer has 6
- The game ended in a draw (½ - ½)
As you can see, learning a small amount of chess shorthand can make a tournament easy to follow. While there are some complicated calculations that go into tiebreaks, the basics are quite simple.
Now that you know how to read chess games and tournaments, you can improve your knowledge of chess history and become a better player in the process.
Further reading (chess records):
- Masterpieces and Dramas of the Soviet Championships - Volume I
- Quarterly for Chess History
- Match Tournament for the World Chess Championship The Hague - Moscow 1948
Conclusion: Expanding your chess knowledge
Today, tracking tournaments is easier than ever with interactive match records that allow you to easily find specific games from a tournament and see how they played out on an analysis board.
Nevertheless, learning to understand the basics of reading chess records, shorthand, and notation gives you the ability to explore the whole history of chess. Through the innumerable books, magazines, and digital records available you can enjoy the fascinating history and become a better player in the process.
Frequently Asked Questions
How are chess games recorded?
Chess games are recorded using notation. Today, algebraic notation is most common and involves recording moves using abbreviations for chess pieces and coordinates for squares on the board.
What are the main types of chess tournaments?
The most common chess tournaments use Round Robin, Swiss, or Elimination structures.
What is a cross table in chess?
A cross table records chess games in a tournament. By putting the players on both axes, it can clearly represent every game they play and keep a record of the scores.
Where can you access chess records?
Chess games and tournaments are recorded in books, magazines, and online databases.
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